E 440 — 

.P96 f 

Copy 1 ^ PROCEEDIJSTGS 

OF AN 



UNION MEETING, 




HELD IN NEW YORK, 



AN 



APPEAL TO THE SOUTH. 



NEW-YORK: 

JOHN H. DUYCKINCK, STATIONER AND PRINTER, 
]«4 PEARL STREET. 



IStJO. 



PROCEEDTlSrGS 



OF AX 



UNION MEETING, 



HELD IN NEW YORK 



AN 



APPEAL TO THE SOUTH 



XEW-YORK: 

JOIIX II. DUYCKINCK, STATIONER AND PRINTER, 
164 PEARL STREET. 



ISOO. 



AN APPEAL TO THE SOUTH. 



A meeting of many of the prominent gentlemen of this city, mer- 
chants and others, was held at the office of a gentleman in Pine street, 
yesterday, for the purpose of consultation and counsel with a view to the 
adoption of such measures as would tend to restore peace and harmony 
to our distracted country. The meeting was held in a large room of the 
new building, 32 Pine street, opposite the office of Mr. Lathers, where 
it was originally designed to take place. The apartment was crowded 
to its utmost capacity, and yet the meeting was exceedingly select and 
comparatively private in its character, no person being admitted except 
the gentlemen to whom the following note of invitation had been ad- 
dressed : 

Xkw York, December 10, 1860. 

Dkar Sir: Tlie undersigiieil, decniiiig it llic duty of all patriotic citizens, in a 
crisis like the present, to do what they can to provide a way of escape from tlie 
calamities which threaten us — not to say are ah-eady upon us — respectfully request 
you to meet a number of other gentlemen, to whom this circular will be sent, at the 
office of Richard Lathers, 33 Pine street, on Saturday, the 15th inst., at 12 o'clock, 
for consultation and mutual counsel, with a view to the adoption of such measures, if 
any can be devised, as will tend to hoal the present dissensions, and restore our once 
happy country to peaceful and harmonious relations. 

The answer to the enclosed letters will be read to the meeting. 

Very respectfully, 

Watt.s Shkrman, William B. Astor, 

Washington Hunt, of Lockport, John A. Dix, 

Erastus Brooks, 0. Comstock, of Albany, 

James T. Bradv, Augustus Sciiell, 

Gustavus W. Smith, Stewart Brown, 

Edwin Croswell, Gerard Hallock, 

Wilson G. Hunt, Geo. E. Baldwin, 

James T. Soutter, James W. Beekman, 
Richard Lathers. 



Ill pursuaiice i>f the al)i)vt' invitation, some two hundred of the lead- 
ing men ot' the City and State assembled at the place designated, soon 
after 12 o'clock, on vSaturday. l.'jth inst. 

A large number of those who had been invited were present, while 
from others, whose engagements precluded their attendance, letters ex- 
plaining the cause <>f their absence were received and read to the meet- 
ing. The following is a list of the gentlemen to whom invitations were 
sent, many of whom were present, and their names will accurately reflect 
the character of the assemblage : 



John G. Ciaco, 
(lovcrneur Kemble, 
Aaron Ward, 
Thoinaj* Tileston. 
James Brooks, 
Royal riielps, 
A. A. Low, 
Samuel G. Courtney, 
Stewart Brown, 
Robert B. Minturn. 
Henry Grinnell, 
(."liarlcs O'Conor, 
JaineB T. Brady, 
Millard Fihnorc, 
Wa.^liington Hunt. 
William Kelly, 
William B. Astor, 
Gerard Uallock, 
Charles Comstock, 
Erastus Corning, 
(iustaviis W. Smith, 
Horatio Seymour, 
George K. Bahlwin, 
I'. W. Kngs, 
Daniel S. Dickinson, 
William Duncan, 
WattH Sherman, 
JoBhua J. lliniy, 
EliaH S. Higgiii!'. 
Algernon S. .larvi;', 
Vini" ^V'right Kiiig->ley, 
(>. G. Carter, 
John M. Barbour, 
i: M. Ilait, 



Jobn Kelley, 
George W. Clinton, 
William B. Clerke, 
Isaac Bell, 
Thomas E. Davis, 
Stephen Johnson, 
John A. Stewart, 
Com. W. P. Levy, 
James E. Shaw,> 
Eugene Kelly, 
Robert 0. Glover, 
JJenJamin Nott, 
James Avisell, 
Tiionias Bacon, 
Edward Dodge, 
A. B. Getty. 
John B. Higgins, 
J. A. Greene, Jr., 
A. C. Paige, 
Judge Allen, 
James C. Spencer, 
\. B. Congi^r, 
George Bartlclt, 
H. S. Randnl, 
Carlos Cobb, 
Israel T. Hatch, 
\. E. Paine, 
Woostcr Sherman, 
.John D. Pierson, 
William F. Ru>-sell, 
lloraci- Day, 
!■;. .1. Brown, 
William Duer, 
Solomon G. Haven, 



Thomas Slocomb, 
R. G. Horton, 
James F. Cox, 
J. R. Bulkley, 
William C. Pickcrsgill 
Samuel D. Babctck, 
James M. Brown, 
H. F. Spaulding, 
R. Caldwell, 
Jo!in Potts Brown, 
J. Boorm'n Johnston, 
George (!. Sampson, 
Samuel B. Caldwell, 
(ieorge \V. Bee, 
Frederick Hudson, 
John .\llen, 
George W. Hcnnings, 
Rev. T. H. Taylor, 
Rev. F. L. Hawkcs, 
I'rof. Mitchell, 
Edward H. Gillilaii, 
.). Li'aycraft, 
H. O. Brewer, 
Andrew Mount, 
Moses Taylor, 
Mansfield Lovoll, 
Richard Schcll, 
Benj. R. Wintlnop, 
J. W. Chanler, 
JauH's Maurice, Jr., 
Charles Roome, 
Lucius Hopkinp, 
A. P. Pi Mot, 
S. M. L. Barlow, 



William Miner, 
James D. Morgan, 
Edwia Croswcll, 
Augustus Schell, 
Wilson G. Hunt, 
Erastus Brooks, 
General Viclic, 
John A. ParliLT. 
S. J. Tilden, 
Greene C. Bronj^on, 
G. B. Lamar, 
James T. Souttor, 
Benjamin Lodcr, 
Gulian C. VerplancU, 
P. B. Sweeney, 
E. F. Purd.v, 
S. P. RusscI, 
James Munroe, 
John A. Dix, 
James AV. Beekmau, 
C. Augustus Davis, 
J. H. Brower, 
Reuben Withers, 
Aaron Vanderpoel, 
Martin Van Buren, 
T. AV. Gierke, 
Win. D. Kennedy, 
Jonathan Trotter, 
Charles Yates, 
Henry ileyer, 
John H. Lyell, 
James M. Hayward, 



0. B. Wheeler, 

Lorenzo Burrowcs, 

R. H. Wnhvorth, 

D. D. Aikin, 

D. B. St. John, 

T. B. Satterthwaitc. 

F. S. Lathrop, 

J. D. Jones, 

Lt. Gl. Wiiifield Seott. 

George B. Uorr, 

Ehvood Walter, 

C. F. Lindsley, 

James E. Shaw, 

C. S. Johnson, 
Sydney E. Morse, 
Townsend Cox, 
John Van Buren, 
Aniasa J. Parker, 
Douglas Robinsni, 
Daniel F. Tiemann, 
Abni. S. Hewitt, 
Edward Coojier, 

D. Devlin, 

John C. Hamilton, 
James Gordon Bennett, 
U. P. Levy, U. S. N 
Asahel S. Levy, 
Edwards Pierrepont, 
Charles A. Secor, 
John H. Earle, 
Frederick Gebhard, 
Wm. C. Wetmore. 



B. F. Butterworth, 
R. AV. Howe, 
AV. D. Parsons, 
Jchial Read, 
EdwaidHaight, 
J. S. Thayer, 
AV. F. Havemeyer, 
AVilliam Redmond, 
Henry Hopkins, 
Lyman Tremair, 

D. D. Barnaid, 
Rufus AA'. Peckham, 
Gen. P. Gansevoort, 
August Belmont, 
AVilliam McMurray, 
J. J. Roosevelt, 

Lc Grand Capeis, 
Emerson Coleman, 
Gould Hoyt, 
Ro'oort Souter, 
Ed. of N. Y. Observer. 
Daniel AV. Teller, 
James Punnett, 
A. T. Stewart, 
AVilliam T. Coleman, 
Hiram Ketchuni. 
Frederick Schuchardt, 
James AVadswoith, 
J. AV. AVhite, 

U. S. Consul at Lyons 

E. P. Norton. 



Co]. Richard Latiikrs called the meetiiig to ordei'. and in doing so, 
spoke as follows : 

Gentlemen : By the request of the Committee of invitation, I rise to 
call this meeting to order. I need hardly say to yoti how much grati- 
fied we are to see so many of the venerable and distinguished statesmen, 
the enterprising merchants and the substantial citizens of our beloved 
State convened on this occasion. You are called together as national 
men, irrespective of party, to consider a subject of painful interest — the 
threatened dissolution of our glorious confederacy — to contemplate that 
fatal period in our country's history against which the prophetic pen of 
the father of our country so earnestly warned us in his tarewell address. 
Our Union has fallen a prey to sectionalism, and the terrors of civil war 



and of fratoriial >Li-ili.' tliroateii to deluge the laud with hlood. and to 
erase from the calendar of nations the land of our pride and afVections — 
the land of hope and of refuge, and the land possessing the highest civiliza- 
tion, the greatest commercial il nelopment and national power which 
have ever blessed the prospects of coustitntional liberty. The stern 
realities before us reipiire no exaggeration to bring the danger home to 
us. There are. it is true, those whose recklessness or ignorance deride 
the etlbrts of patriotism as " Union saving." and the poisoned chalice of 
sectionalism seems to be pressed with fatal elloct in proportion as the 
fraternal hand allays and soothes the malady. \Vonld to God that these 
sectional agitators could alone sutler the penalty of their own aggres- 
sions on the rights of the South, and that those who love our country's 
institutions and fulfill their reei|irocaI duties as citizens in the sj)irit and 
letter of the Constitution, euuld escape the penalty of the " higher-law "" 
doctrines, and be permitted to develop the national resources untrani- 
melcd with sectional strife and unstained with federal infidelity. You 
are convened as patriots, who can rise above party trammels, and whose 
■• higher law "" can render unto C;esar the things that are Ciesar's ; who 
can perform your whole duty to your fellow-citizens of other States, 
under a sacred <ompact, irrespective of the effect on abstract opinions 
of the government of colored persons or of territories, your philan 
thropy being always limited by your duty, and your generosity, ,by 
justice. It is not now the time to discuss the institutions of the South 
or their rights in the territories, nor to inveigh against the teachings 
and practices of those whose bad faith and aggressive spirit have pro- 
duced that degree of exasperation among our Southern brethren, entit- 
ling their precipitancy, even, to much allowance, when we consider theii' 
wrongs. All this has been done on our part without efTect. and the 
South, hopeless of its rights under the ctmlederacy, proposes to save its 
institutions out of it. We have met to asU them, in a tVatcnial spirit, 
to pause anil consider their duties to that part of their Noi-tlu'rn brethren 
whose sympathies have always been with Southern rights and against 
Northern aggression ; to co-oj>erate with us in bi-inging back to its pris- 
tine integrity our common heritage — the Constitution — and rebuke and 
eHectually put down the fell spirit which threatens to divide us. Al 
ready our industrial and comiiici-cial enterprises are paralyzed, and we 
are threatened with bankruptcy among the rich and starvation among 
the poor. < >ur public securitic-- and private engagements are looked on 
with distrust, while the political organi/ation of the States and of the 
nation are in daily ])eril of dissolution. We propose to send a com- 
mittee to the South, to lav our views before their statesmen, and to 



express oui- sympathy for their wrongs, and to assure them of our con- 
tinued co-operation and hopes of success in speedily procuring for them 
that equality which abstract justice, as well as the Constitution, guaran- 
tees to them and their institutions. We wish to assure them not only 
of our own fidelity to the Constitution, and of our fraternal feelings to 
all parts of our common country, but to inspire them with hope that 
the evils of abolition have culminated, and that a returning sense of 
justice will mark the future legislation of the nullifying States of the 
North. It is proposed to send a committee whose social position, integ- 
rity and able political experience will do credit to their constituency and 
impress our Southern brethren with the earnestness of our co-operation 
and the soundness of the leading and representative men of New York 
herein assembled. I again repeat that the Committee of Invitation feel 
that they have accomplished much good in bringing together so illus- 
trious a body of men to consider the grave questions before them, and 
to initiate the tirst movement, on the part of the Empire State, to pre- 
vent, if possible, a rupture in our national affairs. And it is with 
pleasure we have to propose a gentleman to preside over your delibera- 
tions, whose national reputation and patriotic sentiments commend hirii 
to everv lover of our country, and fit him peculiarly to preside over a 
body of national men in the present national emergency. I propose, 
therefore, as Chairman of this meeting, the Hon. Charles O'Conor. 
(Applause.) 

The following gentlemen were appointed Secretaries : James F. Cox, 
William B. Clerke, and Oliver G. Carter. 

Mr. CCoNOK, on taking the chair, spoke as follows : 
I sincerely regret that it was not your pleasure to select some 
other gentleman as chairman of this meeting. In these times, it is more 
important that we should exhibit to the public mind accessions to our 
ranks — to that class of our people who have given no cause for excite- 
ment, and who have done nothing to sunder the ties of affection by which 
the people of these United States were once held together. I should 
rather, much rather, that this meeting could be presided over hy some 
gentleman, remarkable, if you please, for not having hitherto manifested 
much interest in this question, or remarkable, like Senator Dixon of Con- 
necticut, who a day or two since, stepping forth from the ranks of 
the so-called republican party, and placing himself before this country 
as a true hearted American, devoted to conciliation, to harmony, to 
holding us together, to perpetuating our interests and our Union, pro- 
claimed in the Senate of the United States the doctrine of peace, and 



made a manly ertbrt in his high place — who. separating himself, as 1 say, 
from those who were at least suspected, and with whom he had been 
associated, made an etlort worthy of the occasion and likely to be bene- 
ficial in its influence. (Applause.) I have no other ubjection to appear 
here, save that my appearance does not indicate the presence of a new- 
champion for Union, a new vindicator of concord, a new ioe to causes of 
irritation and dissension, but is a mere indication — permit me to say it — 
that those who have been always faithful are faithful still. (Applause.) 
From these personal remarks I pass to a brief consideration of 
the question that has l)rou£rht us together. Gentlemen, in a position 
of entire seclusion from political interests and public atlairs, I have 
had occasion, not for a week, a month, or a single year, but for 
a number of years, to study with attention the grave question 
now presented to us by the action of political parties ; and I have 
seen, as I conceive, during a period of some years' duration, a 
tendency in political action that, in my judgment, necessarily led, as an 
unavoidable consequence, to a dissolution of this I. nion. Political par- 
ties should never be divided upon moral questions, as they are called. 
In the phrase •• moral * I include the whole circle of religious opinion. 
And political parties can never be beneticially formed in a free State, 
founded upon the odium and detestation in which one party is required 
to hold the life, walk, conversation, and morals, or the religions 
opinions of another. (Applause.) it hence follows that when politicians 
seeking for some issue upon which to divide the community, selected as 
their point, as their banner, -Odium against Negro Slavery,'" they selected 
an issue which necessarily led sooner or later to a dissolution of the 
L'nion It was — and no truer phrase could have been uttered; 1 
I find no fault with the expression — it was necessarily an - irrepressible 
conflict," in which one party or the other must be absolutely subdued, 
so that it could wo longer sustain, in any degree, the contest with the 
other. I do not think it was an "irrepressible conflict" in any of the 
senses in which the term has been used, or in the way in which it was 
understood by those who uttered it; but it was necessarily an irrepres- 
sible oonflicr. I cannot imagine it to be possible that two distinct 
nations — and e;ich of these States is, for cerlain political purposes, and 
for all the purposes of this question, a distinct nation — that two distinct 
nations can live together in one civil government, each entertaining an 
utter detestation of the life and morals of the other. And permit me to 
say in this connection that when I speak of nations 1 am to be under- 
stood as referring to the effective political majority. The effective 
political majority of a State in tliis L'nion speak the voice of the State. 



y 

They are the nation ; the minority are a nullity ; they have no voice or 
power. It hence follows that when an utter detestation of the life and 
morals of the people of Carolina has become the basis of a political party 
in New York, and that political party acquire an ascendency in the 
political affairs of the government, these two States cannot live together, 
except in the relation of oppressor and oppressed. (Applause.) The 
more powerful ^vill trample on the weaker. It may trample on the 
weaker according to some written constitution, so that there will be no 
direct violation of its letter. It may trample upon it in a "way justifiable 
by son:ie course of argument as conformable to law, but it will trample 
upon the weaker after all. A political Union of distinct organized 
communities thus opposed in moral sentiment, can only be upheld by 
force. In such an Union, there can be no relation between the hater and 
the detested, except the relation of oppressor and oppressed. (Apf)lause.) 
It is vain to say, " We will give you equal laws." It is vain to say, " Con- 
gress can pass no law's to injure the Southern States." It is not by 
legislation that the oppression will be effected. It is by the unseen but 
potent influence of the executive department. That influence guides 
the action of the government and must lead to oppression of the Southern 
people if it is permitted to pass into the hands of those who hate them 
for the love of God. (Applause.) Therefore, gentlemen, whilst I 
deplore secession as much as any man who breathes, whilst I deplore 
secession as fraught with the greatest evils, I have looked upon it as an 
inevitable event whenever those who detest the life and conversation of 
the Southern people acquire political control over the central gov- 
ernment at Washington. (Applause.) Not as a thing that must happen 
on the instant, but which must pretty soon follow. It is the natural, the 
necessary, the inevitable consequence ; and although I may dislike par- 
ticular individuals at the South, and believe that they are influenced by 
evil motives, and take advantage of the present state of things for the 
purpose of advancing private ends and aims, I cannot find fault with the 
South as a unit. I look upon the South as a unit, and upon the North 
as a unit. I do not take account of the men at the South who are in- 
fluenced by bad motives. I do not take account of the men at the North 
who are influenced by bad motives. I look ujion the South as an unit, 
that is the effective majority which represents the feelings and interests of 
the South, and I look upon the North as it is represented by that effective 
majority which speaks the voice of the North. And, looking at them in 
this way, I see that if the South cannot otherwi.sj | rotect itself against 
the aggressive spirit of the North, there is an imperious necessity, for 
this act of secession. (Applause — A voice, " not at all.") 



10 

Is the secession to come '? J)esponding men seem tt) fear it. Some 
bad men undoubtedly desire it. The South is full, I am sure, of men 
who are anxious to prevent it. 1 am sure that there are numerous well 
known secession leaders who lead for the purpose of leading aright, in- 
tending, if they can, that the multitude who follow through the 
wilderness of doubt and dismay, may at least be led back into the pro- 
mised land of Union and fraternity. (Applause.) 1 deem utterly un- 
worthy the observation that the South has offended. As a unit it has 
not offended. (T.oud applause.) As a unit it has only struggled to sus- 
tain itself against the rapidly accumulating majority of those who held 
its vital interests in such odium, that the destruction of those interests 
was a necessary consequence of their accession to power. Therefore,! 
say that there is no fault in the South, as a whole, and it lias nothing to 
atone for. (Applause.) Let us look, then, to the North : and I ask, 
what are we to say of ourselves? ] am myself a native of the North. 
My aiieestors came from a country ten degrees nearer the pole than the 
country in whieh I live. 1 am a child of the North in every sense. 
1 have scarcely a friend, I have no correspondents, and 1 have no inter- 
ests, political or otherwise, in the South; and God gave me a physical 
constitution that would not permit me to live two degrees further South 
than the State in whieh 1 am placed. So I can have no personal inter- 
ests, can be suspected of no personal interests, or ought nt)t at least in 
common justice to be suspected of personal views, when 1 .say that the 
South, speaking of it as a unit, as one portion of this country, has not 
offended, and has only struggled to keep its head above the rapidly ad- 
vancing waters of this black sea which has so lonji threatened to ovor- 
whelm it. (Applause.) So much as to the South. Now, as {>> liie 
North : Gentlemen, do I stand here to revile it? Not at all. All m^ 
pride, all my affections, all my interests are here. My birth was in the 
North, and my grave shall be in the North. Let no man suspect me of 
inlidclity to the North, or of going, cap in hand, seeking for favor of any 
description from the South. I demand nothing, and we demand nothing 
from it. Hut let me say, as to the North, that I have no fear of the dis- 
honest Northern jioliticians. There are dishonest [loliticians everywhere. 
I have no fear of those who are denominated the leaders at the North. 
There is no source of evil whatever in the North, except the honest, con- 
scientious mistake of the honest, conscientious people of the North, who 
have drank in this dreadful error that it is their duty, before God 
and man, tn cru'-li nut and to trainple npon the system of industry 
upon which the prosperity of the South and the permanency of 
this I nion in its present form depend. (Ajiplause.) There arc no 



11 

enemies to this Union whose action is to be feared, except the honest, 
virtuous, conscientious people of the North. Let us draw away that sup- 
port from the designing political factionists, and upon the instant this 
disturbing, mischievous controversy ends, our Union renews its youth, 
and appears before us as an institution designed to perpetuity and to 
bless untold millions for untold ages. (Applause.) 

Now, gentlemen, where is our hope ? Why, it is in having a little 
space of time to look about us here at the North — in having a little time 
to correct our errors and to withdraw political power from those who 
would use it destructively. There is no other means; there is no other 
remedy. The question is this: Can we obtain a little time? Can we 
induce the South to believe in our continued fidelity, to believe in the 
practicability of accomplishing our hopes, that harmony may thus be 
restored, and such a state of things created, by means of proper guaran- 
tees, as will render the South safe within the Union ? That is the question. 
Undoubtedly a voice coming from the city of New York will be recoo-- 
jiized as the voice of a friend, for here there was not only an effective 
majority, but a mighty majority in flivor of doing entire justice to the 
South, and of keeping out of power this dangerous party, whose first 
advent to power — the very name of its advent to power — has shaken our 
republic to its foundations. Can we obtain a little time ? I understand 
the proposition is that this city shall appeal to the South for time ; in- 
duce the South, if possible, to stay its hand, and be patient for a time. 
This, certainly, 1 think we ought to do. There are a great many safe- 
guards for public liberty in our Constitution. There are a great many 
safeguards for the rights of oppressed States and endangered inter- 
ests in our constitution, and a resort to some one of these, if our people 
and our representatives in Congress would earnestly unite, might give to 
our friends at the South assurances that political power cannot and will 
not be wielded, even by the Executive, or through executive patronage, 
to their destruction. 

And, gentlemen, can we afford them guarantees? I think we can. 
(Applause.) In the first place, we have nothing to fear, in my judgment, 
except from honest men, as 1 have said before, who have been misled 
and deceived — who have been misled and deceived, in a very great 
degree, not by politicians, but by persons in other walks of life — by 
moral lecturers and by ministers of the Gospel, who have entertained — 
very excusably, I am willing to say — mistaken views upon this subject, 
taken up, perhaps, under the influence of excitement, from very im- 
proper conduct occasionally manifested on the part of Southern men in 
and out of Congress. There are signs of improvement in this quarter. 



12 

ill till' still rt.'1-L'iil (.-aiivass bi'lwofii Fri'iiioiit aiul liiRliauan, when this iden- 
tical <|uestiun\vas licfoiv the iicojile. it w as said in the newspapers, 1 doubt 
not with substantial truth, that three thousand pulj)its were pouring out 
their thunders against slavery, and ealling upon the people, in the name of 
the (iod whom they worshiped, to give their utmost eflbrts to the accom- 
|)lishincnt of the objeet then in view — the election of an anti-slavery 
Ivxeeutive. (Tentlemen. you will not certainly have failed to observe 
that during the canvass which we have just passed through, the pulpit was 
almost silent upon the subject. The persons who spoke from the pulpit 
were so few in number that they have attained a most mienviable noto- 
riety, and will probably be remembered for a century at least for the 
distinctive position in whicli they placed themselves, whilst the pulpit 
generally was, as it should generally be upon such subjects, silent. Now, 
that was a great improvement. It showed that a disposition to recon- 
sider the subject had entered the minds of good men at the North. It 
showed that those who were excited by improper acts, by acts of violence, 
and violent speeches, to a feeling of hostility to the South, had begun to 
consider their duty — had begun the study of the volume from which they 
were bound to take their doctrines, and had begun to learn that it was by 
no means so clear that every slaveholder should be punished in this world 
and be necessarily consigned to perdition in the next. I say the pulpit was 
silent. And the pulpit has now iinprcjved upon that silence. I trust a 
million have already read, and millions more w^ill read, throughout the 
North, the sermon of the liev, !Mr. Van Dyke (applause), delivered on 
Sunday last, where, most wisely — troiu the altitude in wliieli he stood, 
ill all respects most justly and nnexceptionably ignoring all mere wt)rldly 
philosopiiy, ignoring all domination of men or parties, in Church, in 
State, in politics or elsewhere, and placing himself upon that w'hich is the 
single guide to faith and doctrine in the judgment and fixed opinions of 
that great sect which he represents — the dominant sect throughout all the 
North — placing himself upon the Holy Scriptures of Almighty God, he 
showed that the people of the South, if they but performed their duties 
in their stations as well as we at the North in ours, lead lives as 
virtuous and conformable to tlu' j)recepts of Almighty ( Jod. ami uf earthly 
morality, as the best men at the North. (Applause.) 

First, then, gentlemen, we have shown what ? We have shown that an 
influential body which once made itself active to a dangerous end (I grant 
from pure motives), lirst paused, and then changed its tone on full con- 
sideration. And I ask you, is there not hope that we shall live to It ain 
throughout these Northern States that our duty is to correct our own per- 
sonal vices, to reform our own minds and our own morals — to be our- 



13 

selves good and kind Chrislians, loving and afiectionate fellow-citizens ? 
And if we needs must take cot^nizance of the faults and errors of other 
nations, and send the firebrand of incendiary documents where we can 
find no missionary daring enough to go, let us select the heathen in far- 
distant lands, and not imderlaketo denounce as heathens and sinners our 
own estimable fellow-citizens. (Applause.) This circumstance presents 
grounds for hope. It shows that there is a tendency in the Northern 
mind to correct itself, to reconsider its judgment, and to act more kindly 
and more charitably towards the people of the South. 

Well, gentlemen, there is a power at Washington that can save the 
people of the South, if it can but firmly unite and resolve to protect 
the South. I mean in the Senate of the I'nited States, where the South 
has a strong voice, and where many from the North are ready to sustain 
and support her. And as to the more distant future, as it respects 
guaranties and final protection to the South, why' let us, in God's name-, 
if no other remedy can be had, sit down in a national convention and add 
one section to our constitution. I would not alter one word of it. (Ap- 
plause.) I am against altering the constitutions, either of the Union or of 
the States, that were adopted in times that tried men's souls — in times 
when the fathers of this republic, under the guidance of Almighty Provi- 
dence, were laying the foundations of the first great free State that ever 
existed. (Applause.) I believe that Divine Wisdom presided over those 
events and the judgments that were fornied in framing fundamental 
laws at the close of that contest. 1 believe that every step wherein 
we have departed from the fimdaraental laws of that day was a 
mistake, and that if there be any errors existing at this time in our prac- 
tice, political or otherwise, the efficient cure for them is to go back 
to the platform upon which the fathers stood (loud applause), — to return 
to the glorious rules and principles framed for their posterity by those 
who founded the republic. Therefore, gentlemen, I would not have a 
new constitution, and obliterate that great instrument, sanctioned by 
the name of George Washington, .' (Applause.) I would not say to the 
present generation or to posterity that we could improve it by altering 
one single word or provision of it. (Applause.) I would, however, be 
willin" to add — for we have commentators on the most sacred thinss — I 
would be willing to add a provision for the purpose of removing disputes, 
by way of carrying out and more completely and exactly executing the 
things that are in it. We are told by the highest authority — by 
that which we, I trust, we all revere — the Supreme Court of 
the United States — that the Declaration of Independence and the Consti- 
tution of the United States were made by and for the free white Caucas- 



14 

siaii race inhabiting these I'nited States. (Applause.) And I would add 
a provision to tlw constitution embracing — for the purpose of convincing 
those who otherwise will not see — that principle ; and that would guarantee 
complete protection to the peojjle of the South. (Applause.) I will not say 
precisely in what form it should be added. I will not say it, not be- 
cause I have not duly and luUy reflected on it. and am not prepared to 
say it, but because it may as well be left for greater men than I to have 
the honor of putting it in form, and suggesting the way in which it should 
be adopted. Now, gentlemen, there is no inhumanity, there is no selfish- 
ness, there is nothing that men can find fault with in laying down the 
rule that America was 7iiade for a free white Caucasian race and its 
development. We but follow the judgment of Almighty God when wo 
say, " America for the white Caucasian, Africa for the negro who was 
born it, who is adapted to its climate, and there, in a physical sense, at 
least, can best flourish."' (Applause.) Why, if we establish the princi- 
ple that this is a free white republic, and not a home for the free black 
man, and if the black man has in his nature and constitution a 
capacity of being elevated to power, and of being civilized and Christian- 
ized, what a mighty empire of free, enlightened, independent, powerful 
men you will have in Africa within a century or two ! If they are 
fit for freedom, if they can enjoy and sustain self-government, that is the 
way in which benevolence, which turns away from the white man and 
aims at elevating the black man. can ha\c its full ^n-atifu'atinn. If 
the Ijlack men of the South are one day to attain their liberty, it will be 
when himdreds of millions of enlightened. Christian, civilized black men, 
in the full enjoynieiit liberty, shall people the plains aii<l hills 
(jf Atriea — when that continent shall have its civilization, its com- 
merce, its armies and its navies — then, indeed, the Southern States of this 
l^nion would be obliged to sustain an iiiiei|iial eoiillicf. or deliver np to the 
freedom of his native region every black slave williin llieir borders. 
And tinis, if indeed, as these fanatics seem to think, it be within the 
scheme of .Almighty Providence, to elevate the bhek race, that race will 
be elevate*] by its own insf i-nmentalit v, and in a eliina'e most c()n- 
geiiial to its constitution, mental and pli\ sical. 

(jcntlenien. I have already kept you too long. This, to be sure, is a 
great subject, anil I always fi'cl, when I speak upon it. that I must cither 
say altogether too little, or weary the patience of" those who may be 
(d)lige<l through courtesy tf» listen. I have done. We have met to 
re-assure our Southern friends. We have, met to present to them, 
in' the strongest form in om- power, the assurance of our continued 
action in their favor, and to concert sucii measures as may lead to stay 
ing the progress of their justifiable discontent. 1 insist upon calling it so. 



15 

(Applause.) To stay the affirmative, final action of that justifiable dis- 
content until we shall have had an opportunity to change the existing 
state of things, and relieve the South from the present position of 
affairs. The party which believes it a duty to suppress and crush out 
slavery, may be held out from the possession of political power over 
the central government, we may not be able to control that party in 
particular States, but within a very short period I sincerely believe we shall 
be able, to hurl that party from power at Washington, and by united 
action we may prevent it from working mischief in the interval. (Loud 
applause.) 

Hon. John A. Dix then arose and addressed the Chair, as follows: 
Mr. Chairman: The object of this meeting has been stated. It 
is to see whether some measures may not be devised to arrest hasty and 
inconsiderate action in the South until we can consult together for a 
redress of their grievances. It has been proposed that a committee 
should be appointed to repair to the South to expostulate with leading 
men there in regard to this question. It is not supposed that the action 
of South Carolina can be influenced at all, but it is believed that the 
action of the other States may. You have stated, Mr. Chairman, that 
there is a body of conservative men at the South who may be reached. 
We hope by a strong fraternal appeal, avoiding as far as possible all the 
questions which are calculated to produce iriitation. to reach that con- 
servative body of men. 1 therefore move that a committee be appointed 
by the Chair to present an address and resolutions, if it be thought pro- 
per, and such other recommendations as may be suited to the present 
crisis. 

The motion was agreed to, and the Chair appointed the following 
gentlemen to constitute that committee: 

John A. Dix, Wilson G. Hunt, 

George E. Baldwin, Gustavus W. Smith, 

Gerard Hallock, John M. Barbour, 

Edwin Croswell, Thomas W. Clarke, 

Stephen P. Russell, James T. Soutter, 

James W. Beekman, Samuel J. Tilden, 

Watts Sherman, Benjamin Nott, 

John H. Brower, John L. O'Sullivan, 

Elias S. Higgins, John McKeon, 

Algernon S. Jarvis, Wm. H. Aspinwall, 

RoVal Phelps, Charles A. Davis, 

Thomas W. Ludlow, Stewart Brown. 



10 

Hon. Joiix McKeon then rose and addressed the Chair, as follows : 
Mr. Chairman : 1 know not how far it is proposed for this Committee 
to go. From the remarks niadc by yourself and by the gentleman who 
last spoke, I suppose that the address is intended for the South. 1 will 
speak frankly. I have been in Washington several times within the last 
three or four weeks. 1 was satisfied before the election that if it resulted 
in the choice of ^fr. Lincoln, this l.nion was at an end. You may have 
observed that 1 took no part in the political campaign. 1 believed that 
if 1 made that declaration jmblicly. it would be supposed that 1 had 
political objects to promote, and 1 communicated that intelligence to my 
friends. I am now satisfied that the Union is at an end. (Cries of -no, 
no," from all parts of tin- house.) Let gentlemen hear inc. (A voice, 
■• Hear the other side too." My countrymen may believe me, when 1 
state my conviction. I hope that I may be wrong. 1 conversed with 
a Southern gentleman in Washington, and I appealed to hiiu not to stir 
out of the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln. Said J, 
••lie has been elected under the Constitution; why not submit and 
allow us to correct the public opinion of the North .' ' The answer was, 
" Our reason for leaving is because Mr. ].,incoln has been elected under 
the Constitution. Look to the past. For the last twenty-five years, 
you have been taught to believe that we at the Soutli were engaged in 
criminal conduct. ^ Our presses and your pulpits have denounced us as 
criminals and felons. ^ Ou have declared that ^lavcry shall go no fui-- 
ther. 'i'hat declaration has at last taken the form allowed by the Con- 
stitution. We are a conquered people. It is not possible for us to 
live in partnershiji wIumi such denunciation is poured u]>on us." 

Mr. Chairman, the work to be done is to be done here in the North. 
(Applause.) 'J'here is no salvation for us unless a blow is struck in the 
North. (Aj)plaiise.) \(tu, Mr. Chairman, have atlverted to one symj)- 
tom of change that has l)een exhibited in the pulpit. The next symptom 
that 1 would point to is the recent election in liostoii. (Applause.) 
Another is the ncciil speech of the Senator tVoni ( 'oiuieclieut, to which 
allusion has been made. Sir, tiie words sjioken l>y that man thrilled 
through my heart as I listened to them in the Senate <jf the I nited States. 
His speech is not half as well rej)orted as it was delivered. I shall never 
forget if. I am astonished at the incredulity of the North. People to- 
day «lo not liclieve that we are in danger, I, el me make a prophecy. 
Within till' next thirty days 1 l)clieve that South Carolina will be out of 
the I nion. and by the \\\\ of March the cotton States will follow. 
(Voices, "No, no.") lint no force will be used towards the South. 
(Applause.) The first oHeiisive ]»lo\v will be the commencement of civil 



{-■ ; ■ 17 

war. (Applause.) We must look at facts as they are. There is no 
cowardice either on the part of the North or the South. We must not 
talk to one another about cowardice. We must believe that the people 
of the South are in earnest, and that they act from conscientious motives 
as well as the people of North. Men have taken advantage of prejudices 
and have thus brought us into this danger. It is as if we were embarked 
on board of some magnificent steamer with the richest cargo that ever 
floated on the sea, going down under a cloudless sky and without a ripple 
on the surflice, and no one can tell why. (Applause.) Now I believe 
the result will be, that the Cotton States will go oft", leaving the inter- 
mediate Slave S-lates as a frontier, and will await the action of the North. 
They will not all be precipitate, they will wait for us to act. W^e may 
as well face the danger at once. And how shall we begin 1 With our 
legislatures. (A voice, " Good.") We must get our legislatures to act, 
and to influence our Senators and members of Congress. We must get 
the State Legislature to repeal every obnoxious statute. (Applause.) 
ft is undoubtedly true that the personal liberty laws are unconstitutional, 
but they are on the statute book and that is enough to create trouble. 
They must be blotted out. But there is another thing that must be done. 
How is it now with regard to the I'ights of Southern people to pass 
through our Territories with their slaves ? We do not admit it as a 
right, but we do when they ask it as a favor. Now, I insist that it is a 
constitutional right that they should be allowed to bring their slaves 
with them to the North. (Applause.) 

Then comes the question of the Territories. Gentlemen, I am sur- 
prised and astonished to find how many people of the South are in favor 
of running a compromise line to the Pacific. 1 am one of those who 
believe that the Territories that have been fought for and paid for by all 
sections of the country, should be open to all sections. (Applause.) 
That position does not seem to be maintained by a majority of the 
people of the North. But on the other hand, a large number of South- 
ern men are coming to this conclusion. If we cannot have this property 
in common, let us run a line through it, and you may take all North of 
it, and we will take all South of it. It is a great concession on their 
part. 

The next question will be whether there can be such a thing as a claim 
for property in slaves. The Supreme Court has already decided that, as 
one portion of the country insists, but it is denied by another portion. 
The South never will come back until that principle is settled. I know 
it will be distasteful to the North. There are those wlio will not acknowl- 
edge the principle. But the question has got to be met. Unless the 



18 

claim is admitted the Cotton States ^vill not come back. The result will 
lie that all the frontier Slave States will join the Cotton States, and you 
will have a Southern Confederac\- beginning at Maryland and running 
down to the uttermost border of the Sontliern line. That Confederacy 
will be bound together by a common interest. Ifow are the Northern 
States to be bound .' A frishlful future — a niiiht of darkness is coming 
upon us ! But we may as well anticipate the danger and thereby, if 
possible, avoid it. The Eastern, Northern and Western States — have 
they not all a diversity of interest '. What interest has the city of New 
York except a free, open port to the whole world .' (Applause.) I 
speak of interest simply. The \\ estern States are interested in agri- 
culture, the Eastern States in manufactures, in fisheries, in ship-building 
and commerce. The manufactories, the fisheries, the shipping interests, 
are now protected by this government. You see, then, the diversity of 
interest in the Northern States as between themselves. While the South 
will be united by a common interest, producing great results for them, 
the North will be distracted and scattered to the winds of Heaven. Are 
the people of the North prepared for this contingency ? (Voices, '• No, 
no.") Have we not seen enough already to make us pause and consider 
the result '. We see j)ublic stocks running down, the price of produce 
depreciated, manufictories stopped, and we ha\ e ihe dismal prospect 
before us this winter, of thousands thrown out of employment. And 
all this ihr what '. What has caused it? It is all for an abstraction, so 
far as the North are concerned. All on account of a race \\ itii w liom 
ue are not encumbered or troubled in any way. (Ap{>lause. ) U it not 
utfensive to the South fur the North thus to be interfering with Southern 
afiairs ? It has been truly stated, by our Chairman, tli.it when we ge^ 
into moral discussions in politics, there is an end of all peace. Men can- 
not discu.ss thosi' questions in peace. They are matters of feeling. Bui 
we have t<( cal! the people back and change this state of things. How 
shall we do it .' (A voice — •• I'ut New JMigland out '' — laughter.) Nf); 
since the recent election in Boston, and the speech of the Senator fiom 
(,V)nnecticut, we will let New England stay. (Laughter.) And I l)e- 
lieve, when the people of New England <'ome to see the conscijuences of 
this breaking up of the; Inion. they will l)c the first to rally in ilefence 
of the constitutional rights nf every portion of this country. 

My friemls. we mu><t bring to bear upon our State legislature a public 
opinion th.if will jnihicc tliciii to repeal every law that interferes with 
the rights of the South. Then, we must make some compromise in re- 
gard to the Territories. I beg jiardon fir speaking so long. 1 have 



10 

been so oppressed with the ahinuiiig state of things, tliat I thought it was 
my duty frankly to state my fears and to commnnicate to you such in- 
formation as I had. I believe we are just opening a great scene, the end 
of which no man can tell. I therefore appeal to every man to forbear. 
I believe the mass of the republican party, which has the control of the 
destinies of the country, mean to do right if they can see the right. 
Upon them rests the responsibility. We have a minor part to perform. 
Our duty is to tell them what we really believe and let them act as they 
deem best. I do not believe that the great State of New York, which is 
indeed a concentration of the whole power of the Union, which owes its 
position to the Union, Avill be talse to its recollections of the past, and 
that she will not plunge into the yawning abyss, where she will be forever 
doomed to inflimy, dishonor and (I fear) endless tyranny. (Loud ap- 
plause.) 

Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson addressed the meeting as follows : 
I am here, Mr. President, without intending to take part in this meet- 
ing, and because invited here ; for although I have little faith in any- 
thing that can be done at this moment, I would not stay away from a 
meeting called as this has been, and looking to such great and beneficial 
objects. I would not stay away if I had the least hope that anything 
could be accomplished. I have nothing new to say upon this subject, 
Mr. Chairman, more than what I have said before through a long course 
of years. I have seen the seed planted — I have seen the ground culti- 
vated which received the seed — 1 have seen the sprouts shoot up in rank 
luxurious growth and overshadowed the whole land, and it has finally 
produced its crop of terrible poisonous fruit. But let all who would 
know my sentiments, read the record of a somewhat extended public life. 
We are upon perilous times, and it becomes a duty of every patriot — 
every individual who loves his country — to put forth every energy with- 
in his power, for the purpose of averting, not only the danger that 
threatens, but the danger that is upon us. In other days, I had the 
honor to be associated with that somewhat eccentric, but pure and elevat- 
ed patriot — Calhoun, he has gone to his rest and his reward, and Henry 
Clay, who looked over this Union with a solicitude scarcely less anxious 
than that the Saviour of men bestowed upon Jerusalem — he is not hero 
now to take part in the aftairs of the day ; and if this Union is to be 
dissolved, as I religiously believe it is, heaven in mercy has granted the 
prayer of the patriotic Webster, that when his eyes last beheld the sun 
in heaven, it might not shine upon the fragments of a dissevered Union. 
From New York, and from most of the Northern States, every indi- 
vidual who thought as I did in former times of peril, has retired to 



20 

private life, and llieir names supplied, and liieir seats have been lilled 
by those of diametrically opposed opinions. 

But more true juv Marocllus exiled leels 
Than Ca-sar, wiili tlic Senate at liis liccls. 

This union of IStates did not repose at other times, and docs not re- 
pose to-day, npon paper laws and paper lonstitutions. It was founded 
in niutnal friendship and regard, and common interests; and when these 
fraternal feelings cease to exist, a mere paper constitution is but a 
delusive mockery. In 1840, the act which Jiiy friend who just preceded 
me spoke of, which was called, in common ]iar]aiice, the nine months' 
law. was repealed. It jiermitted our Southern brethren who visited the 
State of New York to brin.'."; with them their servants, and remain nine 
months; and yet they were as fully protected as they were in the States 
from which they (\ame. In 1840, sir, that act was repealed. I was 
then a member of the Senate of this State, and although never dreaming 
that I sho"uld be on the national boards of legislation — knowing little 
of this great question compared with what I know now, I resisted the 
repeal of that law, to the best of my ability, as long as I could by argu- 
ments — as long as I could by fair eflbrts, and finally, when driven to it^ 
I resisted it factiously, and kept the majority waiting for nearly a whole 
night. I received the rewards of patriotic men for my exertions, on the 
one side, and my full basket of anonymous letters of abuse on the other. 
But I scorn to speak of my jDcrsonal action. I l)elieve that was the first 
source of trouble between the North and South, and I think the restora- 
tion of that bill will do more to restore good feeling and good will than 
almost any other cause that could be advocated. It is not an amend- 
ment of the Constitution tli:it is wanted merely — the laws are well 
enough — the federal laws and Constitution are well enough, but it is 
(heir execution according to the spirit in which they were enacted, that 
is calletl for and demanded on tiic part of the Soiilii. Tlicy insist npim 
the great principle of the e<jiiality of the States, and they are entitled to 
it npon every consideration that can influence men. communities and States. 
The Constitution makes tlicin cijual — the law makes them eipial — they 
arc equal in the sight of honest men, and are cijiials in the sight of (iod ; 
and woe be to him who undertakes to degrade and trample them down. 
(Applause.) The Smith see and feel the advancing population of the 
North, and that now in the national legislature they are in the minority. 
They see that in a few years there will In- a majority of two-thirds 
against them, not only of States, Ijut of representatives of both branches 
of the Legislature, and they well may fear that the sentiment of the 



21 

entire free States will sweep their institutions away. And hence it is 
that they take ahiriu — hence it is determined that they are now, while 
thev have some power and some strength, unless they can have addi- 
tional guarantees to protect and sustain them, to secede from the Union. 
They are tbrewarned and intend to be forearmed, and unless they can 
find safety, security, equality, repose in the Union, they intend to seek 
it outside, whatever fate may await them. I know there are those 
among us who say that the South do not intend to secede, they say this 
is an unnecessary alarm, they say they can be coerced and driven back 
in their position. All that is necessary is firmness. But the South have 
seen for years these little rivulets of opposition forming upon the hills 
and forcing down through the gorges until they form the black and bit- 
ter waters of one great sea of abolition, which threatens to overwhelm 
and engulf them. I have already remarked that this Union was a union 
of good feeling, a fraternal union, of equals, of good fellowship, and that 
he who supposes that these States can be continued as members of the 
confederacy by coercion — that they can be fought, defeated and subdued, 
into equal and faithful members of the confederacy — should go home to 
his domestic hearth and there breed jealousies, distrust and animosity 
between himself and the partner of his bosom— she who pledged herself 
to love, honor and obey him, who is the mother of his children, who has 
attended him through the vicissitudes of life, and the bereavements which 
have awaited him ; and after he has created this disturbance let him 
then attempt to chastise her and make her love him. And when he has 
succeeded, let him attempt to chastise a State until it becomes a faithful 
member of the confederacy. All the paper laws we have — all the 
strength, force and power of the Constitution — the army and navy, the 
national legislature and the executive power of the government, are all 
not worth a single rush to compel a State to remain one hour in the con- 
federacy longer than it chooses to remain. If the allegiance of a State 
can be secured to the federal C^onstitution, it must be because it believes 
that it is its duty to the sister States upon the great principles of equal- 
ity, upon which the federal government rests. Will the children of a 
common father, who should sit down at the family table as equals, con- 
sent to be degraded by being driven to submission ? Let those who 
believe that this evil can be averted, and that the Union can be preserved 
by force, attempt that method, but let good men, every patriot, set to 
work to correct the public sentiment of the North. The public senti- 
ment of the South has been gonded and irritated until it has arrived, in 
a good degree, at a point of desperation. The South cares little about 
the mere election of Mr. Lincoln — they view it as the development of a 



public bciilimeut, ns u hisl and I'uuil evidcnee ut' llie sonlinient of the free 
States. They look at us as States — not as individual members of the 
community, as we look at tliein as States, not as individual members of 
society. They regard this as an evidence of public sentiment which has 
passed beyond their control, and they say now that there is no hope for 
theni within the Union, and they will secede. What we must convince 
them of is, that we will not only repeal our obnoxious laws upon paper, 
but we will repeal the public sentiment that is more pernicious than all the 
obnoxious laws of Xew England and all the free States together. (Ap- 
plause.) It is a sentiment that has been infused by political demagogues 
who have gone through the land executing a commission of evil ; and if 
Satan hin^self had been permitted to come upon earth to scourge man. 
kind, he could not move successfully have accomplished his mission than 
by going throuu;h the country and preaching demagogueism and section- 
alism on the subject of slavery (applause.) and whether he did it as a 
political demagogue or a ministerial one 1 care very little. (Applause.) 
I call none such ministers of the gospel. 1 call them ministers of de- 
pravity and vitiated politics. Our Southern brothers will reason with 
us as we reason with them. Xo amount of linished and eloquent adr 
dresses will serve us in this emergency — no linely turned period.s in 
speech — no resolutions however patriotic and well pointed and considered 
will answer the occasion. No commission of individuals, however ele- 
vated, patriotic, and pure of record, will be of the least avail, unless the 
Southern people are satisfied that they represent the public sentiment. 
When the conscientious belief of the South can rest on the sincerity of 
our resolutions, addresses and s])ceches, as representing the public mind 
of the North, and not until then, will come concord and unity. I have 
little faith in anything, except that which goes towards creating a pure, 
patriotic, elevated [lubiic sentiment. I have little faith in a meeting in 
this great commercial City, or in anything that it can do further than is 
an evidence of a public sentiment. The South are sure of the fidelity of 
the City of Xew York. (Applause.) It has been true at all times, it 
lias never swerved with its great and mighty patriotic majority. Yiui 
the South have seen that the vote of the country is overwhelming, and 
renders the ( "ity of Xew York po\\ erless ; so far as it is an evidence of the 
public sentiment of the State and City, it will have its influence. But we 
must go lintlier. ami must re[pe,il the obnoxious laws on our statute book, 
and the repeal must carry evidence that it is not for any mere tempor- 
ary purptjse — that it is n(jt because our pecuniary interests have been 
touched, but it must be in evidence that it is a returning public sense, 
and those who would not see have been made to feel, and that returning 



23 

sense and reason are real and permanent. The tree States must be 
brought up to the consideration of a great public duty. The South 
have not offended us. We cannot say that they have ever laid finger 
upon us. They have not invaded our domain. They have not inter, 
fered with any interests belonging to us as sovereign states. But they 
read in our newspapers that their slaves have been run off by an under- 
ground railroad, and they see it set down in derision that one more 
Southern individual has been robbed of his property — one more slave- 
instead of having been returned according to the compact of the Consti- 
stution, has been run off into the province of Canada. They have deter- 
mined to bear these things no longer, and it becomes Northern people 
to determine whether they will permit this state of things to go on, or 
whether they will make one last grand effort to see whether this senti- 
ment can be corrected. You cannot send forth a stream by any natural 
process that will rise higher than a fountain. The South know it. They 
have no faith in addresses and resolutions that have not their sources in 
the feelings of the masses of the people. It is useless to say there is no 
serious trouble. I believe that South Carolina will secede so fiir as the 
movement of her Convention can do it, on the 17th or 18th of this month, 
and events must transpire shortly after which will bring all cotton 
States in association with her, and eventually every State which is a 
slave State, and intends to continue such, will go along together. This 
is as certain as the laws of gravity, and he is a blind man and mad man 
who cannot sec it. All that we can now do is to get time to convince 
the Southern people that there is a returning sentiment of truth and 
justice in the Northern States ; that the honest masses have been mis- 
led and have misunderstood this irritating question, as I believe they 
have, and upon proper consideration will go back to their duty as mem- 
bers of this confederacy, and will welcome back our Southern brethren 
to the great flimily of political, social and moral equals. (Applause.) 
Our constitutional federal laws, I repeat, are well enough. Our obnox- 
ious State laws should be repealed, and in their place a public sentiment 
should be set up and borne aloft, as the great law-giver of olden times 
set up the brazen serpent, that every one who had been bitten by aboli- 
tionism will look on it and be healed. (Great applause.) 1 will close 
as I begun. I did not intend to take part in this meeting. I have no 
particular views but what I have often repeated, and my hope is that by 
this respectable meeting a public sentiment may be drawn out. If it be 
as just, conservative and beneficial as we believe it to be, we may then 
properly so represent it to our Southern brethren, and no longer be mis- 
understood. Look the danger fiilly and squarely in the iacc. We must 



•2-1 

not put too inuc'h trust in inoi'tiiigs, in Congress or in legislation ; but if 
we would ri'iiiain a united people we must say that however wrong we 
may have been, however much error we may have committed, we have 
reconsidered our conduct, and are satisfied that we must treat the South- 
ern States as we treated them on the inauguration of the government — 
as political eipials. AVhen we have done that we shall have done our 
whole duty, and perhaps this glorious government may still go forward 
to the fruition that awaits it. (Loud applause.) 

iliRAM Ketcfh-m, I'^sq., tlien addressed the meeting as follows: 

Mr. Chairman : The present is not a time for crimination or recrimi- 
nation. I think one of the worst evils of the times is the disposition to 
censure, to denounce, to criminate and recriminate. We are in the midst 
of a common danger; what shall we do to rescue ourselves from it '. 1 
concur in the remarks of the Chairman of this meeting upon the Consti- 
tution of our country. I confess that 1 never was so much struck with 
admiration of that Constitution as when I learned that while a President 
of the United States had been elected by a party with which I had no 
fellowship, the same people that elected him had elected a Congress 
which could put manacles upon him. (Applause.) We should not talk 
as though all was gone, because a President has been chosen contrary to 
our wishes. We have still a legislature and a judiciary that are opposed 
to him. Why should we despair ? And 1 am most thoroughly per- 
suaded, as was said by a very distinguished statesman from Tennessee, 
that till' majority in the ensuing Congress will be increased. 

We have been told to look t(^ the North. We will — we tlo. If it be 
true, a>^ has been stated liy the Chairman of this meeting, that the ma- 
jority of the people of the .North are cultivating a feeling of hate towards 
the South, then there can be no Union. Hut the fact, is not proved that 
there is such a majority. What havi- we done at the recent election? 
We have given more than three iunulred thousand votes. And is there 
n gentleman here who believes that we cannot reverse the majority that 
is given against us ? Is there a gentleman here who believes that the 
republican party will have tin; ascendancy lor any length of time in this 
State '. I do ni>i. There are three hundred thousand voters in the State 
of New ^iitk who staml by the ( "onstitution of our country. We have 
seen a parly rising that we l»elieve would undermine that Constitution, 
and we, m 'an to [)ut that |)arty <lown, if that is really their object. Hut 
our friends of the South ought to consider that we, must have time, and 
I have no doubt that we will yet give them those rights that they claim 
under the Constitution. (Applause.) 1 o say that the political majority 



against us is going to continue, is to contradict all the history of the past 
— all the history of popular governments. The party opposed to the 
Republicans came into the contest under circumstances of great disad- 
vantage. They were broken into fragments. Give us time to organize 
and combine, and we will put down any party that should attempt to do 
what the South fear the republican party will do. (Applause.) To our 
fellow-citizens, then, at the South, we say, we do not want you to place 
us in a flilse position. We have given 'J00,000 votes for the Union and 
the Constitution, and we want you to stand by us in the Lnion. We can 
light this wrong in the Union — only we require time. Give us time, 
and we will show you that it is not true that the majority of the people 
of the North hate your institutions. (Applause.) The idea that a party 
or a section is to give up country, Constitution and Union, because they 
have been beaten in one or two canvasses — why. it is not American (ap- 
plause) — it is against the spirit of republican liberty. 

I agree that there has been a vast deal of flmaticism at the North. 
We will cure the bite by a hair from the same dog. (Laughter.) But 
there is yet intellect in the North and sound theology. We have more 
than one Van Dyke — aye, more than a thousand. (Applause.) I will 
pick out men even in flmatical New England that will reason correctly 
upon these questions. Prof. Stuart, of Andover, took hold of that mat- 
ter in 1850, and he was never answered. We can find more of the same 
sort. We can show that slavery is not a sin in itself — and that is the 
real difficulty. (Applause.) We do not ask the learning or logic of the 
South to establish that proposition. The religious intellect of the North 
has taken hold of that question and will settle it right. 

On more than one occasion I have endeavored to demonstrate that the 
success of the republican party would be a great national calamity. But 
we have been outvoted. What then? I say again, the people can be 
brought back — not in a day, but in a year, I believe. But, gracious God, 
what can we do if the Union is broken up ! I appeal, then, to our fellow- 
citizens in the South to stand by us for the Constitution and for the 
Union. (Applause.) 

Some years ago a dinner was given to that great statesman, Daniel 
Webster, in Philadelphia, at which I had the honor to be present and to 
have a seat at his side. In the course of conversation, I made this remark 
to him : Said I, " Mr. Webster, did it ever occur to you that when the 
great charter of liberty in England w^as violated, it was remedied by 
being brought up and renewed f 1 saw him take a n-te, and presently, 
when he came to make a speech, he said, " My fellow-citizens, the Con- 
stitution, no doubt, has been violated, but what shall we dol Shall we 



2<> 

desert it ? I would as soon desert my lather. Let us bring it up and 
renew it. What did the barons of England do when their ]\Iagna Cliarter 
was violated ? They renewed it. They brought it forward and re- 
established it until it was li.ved in the minds of the British people. That 
we must do."" That remark ]jrought dow m the hoiisu iut)re than anything 
else contained in the speech. Now, it is true that the spirit of the Con- 
stitution has been violated, but instead of breaking up this government, 
let us bring the Constitution before the people, and when it is fully 
understood, the South will have full redress under it. (Applause.) 

The idea of breaking up the I nion ought not to be entertained. Let 
us beseech our fellow-citizens of the Soutli to consider the interests of the 
country, its past history, its illustrious founders, and see if we cannot 
harmonize and keep together. And when we have tried and found that 
we cannot, it will then be time enough to think of separating. 1 do not 
know whether South Carolina is to be prayed fur, l)ut 1 can appeal to the 
people of Georgia and other cotton States. If they have any friends in 
this L'nion, it is in the City of New York and the City c>f Brooklyn. Wo 
are neither a Northern nor a Southern city. Ileic is a field where all 
may mingle. We are not only a municipalil} , but a nati(Mial, cosmo- 
politan city. The whole world is represented hert.'. We love the Union 
and mean {>> in-escrvc it. Be assured we shall be found in the right 
place. 

And be assured of one thing more — that it txer a contlict arises be- 
tween races, the people of the City of New York will stand liy their 
brethruii, the white ra'-c. (Applause.) We will nt'Vi-r siitl't'i- you to be 
trampled u[»on by those of another blood. 1 believe the late election in 
this State has shown that upon the question of race the people are right. 
(Applause.) So then, it' you feel yimrseUcs in danger. 1 believe 1 can 
speak for the jieople of tliis St;iti — that tlu'\ will stand by yon to the 
last. ( Loud applause.) 

At the eoncbision ot Mr. Ki;itiir.M"s i-eniarks. the C'onunittee, who 
had been out in eonsultation during tlie deliverv of' the (oicgoing speeches, 
came in and reported through their ehairman, (Jen. J)i.\, the following 
address and I'esolutifms. which, after consideration, were adopted unani- 
mouslv : 



A D D I^ E S S . 

Fellow-Citizens and Bkktiirex of the South : 

It has become our painful duty to address ourselves to you under the 
most alarrainjr circumstances in which we have been placed since the 
formation of the government. Tn the fullness of our prosperity, our 
strength, and our credit, the I'nion, to which we owe it all, is in immi- 
nent danger of becoming a prey to internal dissension, sacrificing the 
great interests of the country, and forfeiting the high position it holds 
among the nations of the earth. I'o avert a calamity so disgraceful to 
us as a free people, so disastrous to the common welfare, and so dis- 
heartening to the friends of representative government in both hemi- 
spheres, we appeal to you by the sacred memory of that fraternal friend- 
ship which bound our forefathers together through the perils of the 
Revolution, which has united us all through succeeding years of alternate 
good and ill, and which has conducted us, under the protection of the 
Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, to wealth and power by a progress 
unexampled in the history of the past — by all the endearing recollections 
with which this association is hallowed, we conjure you to pause before 
the current of disunion shall acquire a force which may prove irresistible, 
that we may consult together, with the calmness due to the magnitude of 
the crisis, for the removal of the causes which have produced it. We 
make thi« appeal to you in entire confidence that it will not be repulsed. 
We have stood by you in the political contest through which we have 
just passed. We have asserted your I'ights as earnestly as though they 
had been our own. You cannot refuse, therefore, to listen to us, and to 
weigh with becoming deliberation the reasons we have for believing that 
the wrongs, which have led to the existing alienation between the two 
great sections of the country, may, with your co-operation, be speedily 
redressed. We do not intend to go back to the origin of these wrongs. 
We will not review the dark history of the aggression and insult visited 
upon you by abolitionists and their abettors during the last thirty- 
live years. Our detestation of these acts of hostility is not inferior to 
your own. We take things as they exist, to deal with them as an evil, 
not to be eradicated by violence, but to be remedied by a treatment 
which shall at the same time be considerate and iirm. We call on you 
as friends to delay action until we can induce those, through whose agency 
the evil has been brought upon us, to listen to the voices of reason and 
duty, and to place your relations and ours to the common privileges and 



2S 

benefits of the Union on a footing of perfect equality; or, failing in this, 
until we can bring the majority of our fellow-citizens in the North to co- 
operate with us. as we do not doubt they will, in the proper measures of 
redress. We do not despair of securing from those, to whose hands the 
reins of government are about to be enirusted, a recognition of your 
rights in regard to the surrender of fagitive slaves and equality in the 
territories. \Ye know that great changes of opinion have already taken 
place aniDUg their Tiiost intelligent and influential men — that a reaction 
has commenced, which is not likely to be stayed — that errors and preju 
dices which in the heat of the canvass were inaccessible to reason and 
persuasion, have been, on cool reflection, renounced ; nay, more-, that 
many, whose opinions have undergone no change, are willing, in a praise- 
worthy spirit of patriotism, to make on questions, which are not funda- 
mental in our system of government, but merely accessory to our social 
condition, the concessions necessary to preserve the I'nion in its Integrity, 
and to save us from the fatal alternative of dismemberment into two or 
more empires, jealous of each other, and embittered by the remembrance 
of diiferencee, which we had not the justice ur the magnanimity to com- 
pose. 

Let us enumerate briefly the grounds on which we repose our trust in 
a speedy accommodation of the existing disagreement between the North 
and the South. 

I. The late election. Although it was adverse to us throuiihout 
the North, we have in the detail added materially to our strength in 
Congress, where the power to I'edress wrong and prevent abuse is most 
needed, hi this State, against five democratic and union members of the 
present Congress, eleven members have been elected for the next; and 
in the other Northern States five members more have been gained, 
making a change of twenty-two votes in the House of Kepresentalives, 
giving a decided majority in that body to the friends of the Union and 
the equal rights of the South, rendering all hostile legislation impossible, 
and aftbrding assurance that existing wrong will be redressed. 

In regard to the general result of the election, we do not hesitate to 
say, that the conservative men of the North have been defeated by their 
own divisions rather than by the votes of their opponents, and that it is 
not a true criterion of the relative strength of parties. The slaverv qucs. 
tion was but an element in the contest ; it would have proved utterly in- 
adequate to the result had not the democratic party been disorganized 
by its own dissensions. Even in the City of New-York, with an over- 
whelming majority, one of the most conservative Congress districts wus 
lost by running two candidates against a single republican. 



29 

ill the C'iingross (.lisliicls carried l)y ilio ami republicans, the canvass 
was placed distinctly on tlie ground of sustaining the equal rights of the 
States in the territories. In the month of May last an address was pub- 
lished in ihd City ot New \urk'. reviewing the controversy between the 
two i^reat sections (,>f the country in regard to the territorial question, 
and assuming as a basis of settlement the folhnvinsr grounds : 

1. A citi/en of any State in the liiitin may emigrate to the territories 
with his property, whether it consists ot" slaves or any other sul)ject of 
personal ownership. 

2. So long as the territorial condition exists, the rtlatioii of master 
and slave is not to be <listurbed by federal or local legislation. 

o. Whenever a territory shall be entitled to admission into the Inion 
as a Slate, the inhabitants may, in framing their constitution, decide for 
themselves whether it shall authcu-ize or exclude slavery. 

W'v stand on these gnumds now. We believe the controversy can 
be a>ljustcd oil no other, ^fany who sustained in the late canvass a 
candidate, who did not assent to tiieni, disagreed with him in oj)inion. 
We speak particularly of the city of New York ; and we say with confi- 
dence that we believe the great conservative party of tlie North may be 
rallied successfully on the foregoing propositions as a basis of adjust- 
ment. In carrying them out \\v shall re-establish the practice of the 
government from its organization to the year \f<'20, running through thi> 
successive administrations of Washington, the elder Adams, Jefl'erson 
and Madison. The territory Northwest of the Ohio liivcr, in which 
slavery was prohibited by an ordinance adopted under the articles of 
confederation, was an exceptional case. In the other territories emi- 
grants from the States were freely admitted with slaves when composing 
a part of their families. The adftption of the Mis.souri Compromise 
under the administration of Mr. !Monr(»e, was the lirst departure from 
the practice of the government under the Constitution. We must go 
back to the policy of the founders of the Republic if we hope to preserve 
the Inion. We believe this great object can be accomplished, and that 
harmony may be restored to the country if time for action be given to 
those who have its destinies in their hands. 

II. The republican party. It cannot possibly remain unbroken during 
the term of the incoming administration. The two chief elements — the 
political and religious — can never harmonize in practice. The process 
of separation has already commenced. While thoj^e who osteiisildy re- 
present the religious element are as fierce as ever in their denunciations, 
leading politicians, no doubt in view of the responsibility to devolve on 
the President elect in carrving on the government, have renounced ultra 



opinion!?, and prociaiaied tlie duty ol enforcing an clVnjienl fugitive slave 
law. In Huston the I'nion parly triumphed by a majority of several 
thousand votes in the late munieipal election, and the abolitionists have 
been expelled by the people from the public halls, in which they at- 
tempted to hold their disorganizing assemblies. In other cities of \e\v 
England the same reaction has taken place. The theorists and the jioli- 
ticians can never hold together when measures <.)f government are to be 
agreed on ; and it is not believed that the republican j)arty can sustain 
itself for a single year on the basis of the principles on which it was 
organized. 

[t is a mistake to imagim- that the whole republican party, or even 
the great bulk ot"it, is really at heart, animated by any spirit hostile to 
the rights or menacing to the interests of the South. Anti-slavery ism 
has constituted but one of various political elements combined in that 
•■ republicanism ■' which has elected Mr. f/uicoin. We pledge ourselves 
to yon, that whenever a fair opportunity shall be presented of a distinct 
and simple vote of the North upon the full recognition of all your con- 
stitutional rights, a very large majority in nearly every -Northern State 
will be found true to the Constitution and true to the fraternal relations 
established by it between you and us. 

III. The fugitive slave law. Eight or nine States have passed laws 
< alculated, if not designed, to embarrass the surrender of fugitive slaves. 
Wrong as these enactments are in principle and in [uirpose, they have 
been practically nugatory. We believe no fugitive from service or 
labor has been discharged under any one of them. They are, neverthe- 
less, utterly indefensible as the index of u.-ifriendly feeling ; they have 
wrought, in practice, the further injury of furnishing an example of infi- 
flelity to (Constitutional obligations — an injury to us as well as to you ; 
and no one doubts that they will, when brought before the judicial tri- 
bunals of the country, be jironounced violations or evasions of a duty 
enjoined by the (Constitution, and therefore void. 

.\ iiiovciiicnt has already been made in N'crmoiit (the most hopeless 
of the republican States) to repeal her personal liberty bill, and the ques- 
tion, as we understand, is yet undecided in the hands of a committee. 
Massachusetts, it is believed, will repeal hers at the approaching session 
of her legislature. Nor is it doubted that Mr. Lincoln, who has publicly 
declared that the fugitive slave law must be faithfully executed, will 
exert his influence to procure the abrogation of all conflicting enactments 
by the States. That it is the duty of the States to repeal them, without 
waiting for the Courts to pronounce them invalid, no man, who justly 
appreciates the existing danger, will deny. 



31 

IV. The conservative men of the North. Since the adoption of the 
compromise measures of 1850, we have firmly maintained your rights 
under them. Previous differences of opinion were cheerfully renounced. 
The contest with the ultraism of the republican party, active and strong 
as it is, has not been unaccompanied by personal sacrifices on our part. 
They have been encountered unhesitatingly, and without regard to politi- 
cal consequences to ourselves. We felt that we had a stake in the issue 
not less important than you. Believing the Union essential to the pros 
perity and the honor of the country ; holding that its dissolution would 
not only overwhelm us with calamity and disgrace, but that it would 
give a fatal shock to the cause of free government throughout the world, 
we have sought by all practicable means to maintain it by carrying out 
with scrupulous fidelity the compromises of the Constitution. Though 
beaten at the late election, it is our sincere belief that we are stronger on 
this question now than we have been at any previous time. We believe 
we are nearer a solution satisfactory to you than we ever have been. 
We regard it as certain to be accomplished, unless it is defeated by pre- 
cipitate action on your part. 

These are a few of the grounds on which we rely fur an adjustment of 
existing differences. There are others which we deem it needless at this 
juncture to press on you. But we should leave the view we take of the 
question unfinished, if we wei-e not to add, that any violation of your 
constitutional rights by the incoming administration, if it were attempted, 
would meet with as prompt and as determined a resistance here as it 
would from yourselves. We desire it to be distinctly understood that 
we speak with full knowledge of the import of our words ; and that we 
pledge ourselves to such a resistance by all the means which may be 
necessary to make it effective. But we are satisfied no such danger is 
to be feared. It cannot, in the nature of things, be an ultra administra- 
tion. No party in power, under our system of government, can fail to 
be conservative, no matter on what declarations the canvass may have 
been conducted by its leading supporters. There is an under current of 
moderation in the flow of popular opinion, which will inevitably with- 
hold those, to whom the great interests of the country are only tempo- 
rarily confided, from running rashly into extremes. 

Let us, then, fellow-citizens and brethren, again appeal to you to ab- 
stain from any movement which shall have for its object a dissolution of 
the political bonds, which hare so long, and so happily for us all, united 
us to each other. They have given us honor, wealth and power. If 
occasional differences have disturbed the general harmony, they have 
been speedily adjusted with fresh accessions of benefit to the common 



welfare. No nation has had s.. nniiiterniptod a «areor of prosperity. 
T<» what are we to nttrihutc it but to the well adjusted orfjanization ot^ 
our political system to its several parts .' We do not call on you to aid 
us in upholding it on these considerations alone. There are others of a 
more personal nature — not addressing thcmselvos to you as coininunities 
of men juerely, but as individuals like ourselves, bound to us by ties of 
reciprocal obligation, which we call on you in all candor to respect. We 
should not make this appeal to you on an occasion of less magnitude. 
But when the very loundations vt' society are in danger of being broken 
uj), involving the peace of families, the interests of communities, and the 
lasting welfare and reputation of the whole confederacy of States, no 
feeling of delic;icy should dissuade us from speaking freely and without 
concealment. We call on you. then, as brethren and friends, to stand 
by us as we have stood by you. 

L)uring the angry contentions of the last nine years, we have been the 
open and nnshrinkiiig vindicators of your rights. It is in lighting with 
you the battle for the Constitution that we have by an unfortunate com- 
bination of causes been overthrown — not finally and hopelessly (far from 
it) — but temporarily only, and with a remaining strength, which needs 
otdy to be concentrated to give us the victory in t'uture conflicts. Is it 
magnanimous — nay, is it just — to abandon us when we are as eager 
as ever to renew the contest, on grounds esseritially your own, and leave 
us to carry it on in utter hopelessness for want of your co-operation and 
aid ? W»- cainiot doubt the response you will give to this appeal. Vou 
catniot fail to see that by hastily separating yourselves from us, you will 
deprive us of the co-operation neede 1 to contend successfully against the 
ultraism which surrounds us. and may leave us without power in a 
political organization embued, by the very act of separation, with a ran- 
e«jrou8 spirit of iiostility to you. We conjure you then to'u'nifc with us 
to prevent the <|uestion of disunion from being precipitated by rash 
counsels and in a manner altogether unworthy of our rank among the 
great nations ol the larlh. an<l of tin* destinies wliieh aw ail us if we are 
only true to ourselve-. 

If the ev«Mi«, shall pmve that we ha\e <ivt!rstatrd our own ability to 
(iroeuri- a retlress of existing wrongs, ov the disp(i>ilii)ii of others to eon- 
cede what is due to you, as members of a confederacy, which can only 
l»e preserved by e<|Ual justice to all ; let us, when all the elVorts of 
[ifttriotisin shall have jinned unavailing, when the painful truth shall 
have forced itself on tlie conviction that our common brotherhood can be 
no longer maintained in the mutual confidence, in which its whole value 
••insists, — in a wonl. when reconeiljation shall become hopeless, and it 



;{3 

shall be manifest (which, may God forbid!) that our future paths must 
lie wide apart ; let us do all that becomes reasonable men, to break the 
force of so great a calamity, by parting in peace. Let us remember 
that we have public obligations at home and abroad, which for our good 
name must not be dishonored — that we have great interests within and 
without — on the ocean, in our cities and towns, in our widely extended 
internal improvements, in our fields and at our firesides — which must 
not be inconsiderately and wantonly sacrificed. If undervaluing the 
great boon of our prosperity, we can no longer consent to enjoy it in 
common, let us divide what we possess on the one hand, and what we 
owe on the other, and save the Republic — the noblest the world has 
seen — from the horrors of civil war and the degradation of financial 
discredit. 

If, on the other hand, (which may God grant!) you shall not turn a 
deaf ear to this appeal — if it shall be seen in the secjuel that we have 
correctly appreciated the influences which are at work to bring about a 
reconciliation of existing differences, and a redress of existing Avrongs ; 
if mutual confidence shall be restored, and the current of our prosperity 
shall resume its course, to flow on, as it must, with no future dissensions 
to disturb it, and in perpetually increasing volume and force ; it will be 
the most cheering consolation of our lives that in contributing to so 
happy an issue out of the prevailing gloom, we have neither misjudged 
your patriotism, nor the willingness of our common countrymen to do 
you justice. 

THE RESOLUTIONS. 

WiiKUKAs, The Constitution of the United States was designed to secure equal 
rights and privileges to the people of all the States, which were either parties to its 
formation or which have subsequently thereto become members of the Union ; and 
\vhereaS,'W(?'?aW iiistrument contained certain stipulations in regard to the surrender 
of fugitive slaves, under the designation of " persons held to service or labor in one 
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another," which stipulations wore designed 
to be complied with by the act of Congress making provision for such surrender : and 
whereas, the agitated state of the country, arising out of differences of opinion in 
regard to these provisions, demands that we should declare explicitly our sense of the 
obligations arising under them ; therefore, 

liesolred. That the delivery of fugitive slaves to their masters is an obligation en- 
joined by the Constitution, in which all good citizens are bound to acquiesce ; and 
that all laws passed by the States with a view to embarrass and obstruct the execution 
of the act of Congress making provison therefor, are an infraction of that instrument 
and should be promptly repealed. 

ficsolrcil, That the territories of the United States are the common property of the 
people thereof; that they are of right, and ought to be, open to the free immigration 
of citizens of all the States, witli their families, and with whatever is the subject of 



84 

por^onal owiierblii|i under llii- laws of the Stales Irom which ihcy emigrated ; that the 
rvlatiuii of uiasttT and slave cannot, during the territorial condition, be rightfully dis- 
turbed liy federal or local legislation ; and that the people of any Buch territory can 
only diiipose of the question of slavery in connection with their own political organi 
Adtion, when they form a constitution with a view to their admission into the Union 
as a State. 

liftiJveJ, That We pledge ourselve? tu uphold these i)rinciplos hy all the means in 
our power: to ceek by all practicable efforts a redress of the wrongs of which the 
Southern States justly complain, and to maintain their equality under the Consliimion, 
in the full enjoyment ol nil the rights and privileges it confers. 

AVjo/jW, That while we deplore the existing excitement in the b'uulliein States, we 
do not hcMtato to say that there is just ground for it. But we earnestly entreat our 
Southern brethri'n to al)Slain from hasty and inconsiderate action, that time may be 
afforded for bringing about a reconciliation of existing differences, and that the Union 
of the States — the somce of our prosperity and power — may be preserved and per- 
petuated by a re^to^ation of public harmony and mutual confidence. 

Jimoliril, That Hos. Mii.i.AKn Fm.i.mork, IIon.Gukk.sk C. Uko.vso.s and liicH.vun 
!.ATnKi(j<, K>y., be ai»pointed a connniltee to proceed to the South, with a view to 
niukf such explanation to our Soutlnin brethren, in regard to the subjects embraced 
ill the .KddreK-i and IJe.<olulions, as they may deem necessary, and to give such further 
assurances as may be needed to manifest our determination to maintain their rights. 

Jiru,l,-rd, That, ill case either of the gentlemen named in the foregoing resolution 
• >e unable to pirloiin the seivice for which he is appointed, the Committee on the 
.\ddtr!W and Itrsolulioiis In- aiithoii/.ttl lo (ill the \acaiic\. 

Till' (oljiiwiiig ainciuliiu-m was (-lltrid t(» tlic third rcbuliiliuii by 

IliuAM Kktiiii M, lull WHS rficttcd : strike oul nil ndcr llic word "oiiii- 

oiatod " and iiiscrl — 

"And llnit the (|Ueslioii of the lights of the people in the territories of the United 
Stalert is and ought to be left to the judgment of the Supreme Court, in whoso dc- 
' i«lon, ns the law of ilu- land, nil good citizens are bound to acquiesce." 



'riic loljitwiiio ani« iidiiuiil was also |ir<)|i()S( <l 4iHHy^piriBMHHHa«f. imt 

was n-jftU'd : 

' That iiiaAiiiiicli as dilleieiu cs of opinion exi.^t in regard to the suflicicnt guaianly 
ol llioM' c<|ual riplitj* by the e.xten.Mon of the provisions of the Constitution, all doubt 
ill rf;;ard llierelo ought lo be anlhorilalivcly and forever set at rest by an exjt!:>natoiy 
aiiM-ndiiirtit to the Constitution." 

On iiicdiciii il was resolved thai llie .Address and Kesuliitii'iis in addilidli 
l«» beiii;,' pidilished in the dailv liewsjiapers, 1 <• |ii'iii1c(l in [liiinplilet 
form. 

Also, llint a maiaiseijjit cdjiv thercdl' he jirejared and presented lo 
• III' authorilics of South Cnrolina, with tlie si<,niatures attached. 

Mr. K. < .,.,|.|it moved thai ihe reso|iitif)n to call a |iu})lie meeting at 



35 

nn early day be referred to the Committee on Address and Resolutions, 
with power to take such action in relation thereto, and to any other mat- 
ters pertinent to the proceedings of this meeting, as they may deem ex- 
pedient. 

The resolution was adopted, and the meeting adjourned. 

The following letters were read : 

FROM WASHINGTON' HUNT. 

LocKPORT, Dec. 12, 1860. 
I have just received your dispatch iuvitiiig luc to be in New York on Saturday. I 
need not express to you the deep pain and an.xiety with which I have observed the 
deplorable state of our public aftairs. At times it has appeared to me tliat nothing less 
tlian Divine power can save our Union from destruction. Alas ! that a nation so 
blessed by Heaven should be rent and distracted and broken into warring fragments 
by the madness of human passions. But we must not look on with silent apathy and 
despair. The question constantly forces itself upon my mind, What isio be done? 
Can we do anything to avert the great calamity which impend.s our countiy? Wc 
must look the danger in the face, and nerve ourselves for the manly dischaige of our 
duty, come what may. What can be done '? It is now evident that we have reached 
a crisis which will compel the two sections to come together and ogree on a new and 
friendly understanding, or else they must separate and form new nationalities. They 
must consent to some final settlement of the whole slave controversy, ren;ove tlie sub- 
ject from federal politics, cease cursing on both sides, and form a genuine Union, or 
else disunion is inevitable, with the long train of woes and calamities which is sure to 
follow. Now, can the North and South be brought to a fiiendly understanding? E.\- 
treme men in both sections, animated by powerful passions, will stand in the way of 
any just compromise. But patriots who love their whole country must not desert their 
post. We must remain fliithful to the last. We are bound to make new and detci- 
inined eflforts so long as there is a ray of hope to cheer us in the holy work. After 
much reflection, it seems to me that the only solution of our present diflicultics must 
be found in a National Convention — called in the constitutional mode — and that our 
first endeavor should be to secure it by an appeal to Congress and to the lovers of the 
Union, North and South. In a body thus constituted, I cannot but believe a large 
majority would finally concur in presenting a basis of Union which would be ratified by 
the States and the people. In whatever is done at this time, it is very desirable 
to have the co-operation of the more moderate republicans, who are ready to 
sacrifice their party to save the country. There arc some such, and I tiust their num- 
ber will increase daily. It may be advisable to call a State convention, in the first in- 
stance, to give expression to the national feeling of New York, and its continued de- 
sire to i)reserve and cheiish the Union of the States. Should such a convention be 
called, 1 will endeavor to be there. I write this in haste, and will only add, that in 
whatever measures you may adopt to rescue our country from ruin, von may rely on 
my sincere and cordial suppoit. 

WASHINGTON HUNT. 



KHOM KKANCIS L. HAWKS. 

Tlio following was sent to Mi;. Hu(M)ks : 

Ki;\v YouK, Dec. l.S, ISi'.o. 
Erastus Brooks, E.<i}. : 

My Dkau Sir: Will you have llie {goodness to explain to tlie geiiiiemeii «ho may 
a.>;semble at the oflicc of Mu. Latukks, to-day, that events beyond my control will not 
permit me to be present in person, though I concur with them heart and .^oul in all 
their patriotic desires and eftbrts. I am sorry to add that private letters whicli have 
just reached me from fom- of the Foulhern States satisfy me that disunion is in- 
evitable. 

Yours, very truly, 

FRANCIS L. IIAWK.^. 



FROM 1I(»N. AM ASA .1. rAKKFR. 

Ai.nANV, Doc. lo, ISC.ii. 
I regret iluit 1 caniutl meet w ith you on liie l.")th instant, fon.'ullalion >lHUild no 
longer be delayed as to the measures to be adopted by the conservative men of New 
York in the present emergency. An address from a committee to the people of the 
South has been suggested ; one iuthe vein of General Dix's letter ought certainly to pro- 
duce an effect. But, instead of that, or in addition to it,I think a delegation shotdd be 
sent Jroin this State lo Georgia, to be present at the Convention about to be held theie, 
to address the convention and to mingle with its individual members. As to South 
(.'arolina, nothing can probably i)e done with any promise of succc.«.s. Rut perhaps the 
epidemic may be stayed in its pi ogress westward. If Georgia can be saved, the Slates 
lying West of her are in much Uss danger. Even if delaying only can be obtniiud. a 
reaction in pul)lic opinion at the South may be hoped for in time to prevent a .repara- 
tion. 1 think tin; chivahous feeling of the South will revolt at the idea of nliandoning 
u3 of the .Vorth in our elVott to iccover the national administration four years hence, 
in view of the fact that we have placed ourselves in helpless minorities at the 
Noilh, in struggling to secuie (he ju«l rights of the South. 

AM ASA .1. rARKKR. 

Letters were also received Irotii llnii. II. ( JotiiniN. uf Cliarlestoii, S. 
('. ; Jink'c A. ('. l\u(iK, of Scliciiectady. \. \. : Woostkr Shkkm.w, of 
Wateitowii ; 'I'lio.MAs A. I)\vvi:i£, of ^ViHialllsllllI•yll; N. C. Paink, of 
liocliester ; .Ions A. ^iiiFi:NK, of Syracuse, aiul (Ji-.o. AV. ("i.inton, of 
HiilTalo. 

At, the close of the proceedings incipieiit inoasnrcs were taken for call- 
ing a [uiblic meeting in this city. 



Mr. E. Cooper moved tliat the resolution to call a public meeting a 
an early day be referred to the Committee on Address and Resolution 
with power to take such action in relation thereto, and to any oth( 
matters pertinent to the proceedings of this meeting, as they may deei 
expedient. 

In accordance with the above resolution, the following gentlemen wei 
appointed as the Committee on Address and Resolutions : 



John A. Dix, 
George E. Baldwin, 
Gerard Hallock, 
Edwin Croswell, 
Stephen P. Russell, 
James W. Beekman, 
Watts Sherman, 
John II. Brower, 
Elias S. IIiggins, 
Algernon S. Jarvis, 
Royal Phelps, 
Thomas W. Ludlow, 
Charles O'Conor, 
Edward Cooper, 
John Kelly, 



Wilson G. Hunt, 
GusTAvus W. Smith, 
John M. Barbour, 
Thomas W. Clerke, 
James T. Solitter, 
Samuel J. Tilden, 
Benjamin Nott, 
John L. O'Sullivan, 
John McKeon, 

Wm. II. ASPINWALL, 

Charles A. Davis, 
Stewart Brown, 
James T. Brady, 
Edwards Pierrepont, 
Richard Lathers. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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